Amanda Barnes MW Brings Uruguay's Top 10 Wines to London

Tannat is not a grape most London wine drinkers have strong feelings about. That's sort of the point.

Amanda Barnes, a Master of Wine who has spent years working across South America and wrote the well-regarded South America Wine Guide, announced this week that she's launching her inaugural "Top 10 Uruguayan Wines" list at a trade and press tasting in London on August 20. The list is a deliberate push to get Uruguay taken seriously by UK buyers and drinkers, and honestly, it's overdue.

Uruguay doesn't get the column inches that Argentina and Chile command. It's a small country with a small wine industry, around 6,000 hectares under vine according to the Uruguayan Wine Institute (INAVI), compared to Argentina's roughly 220,000. But size isn't everything, and Barnes has been arguing for years that Uruguay's wines, particularly those made from Tannat, deserve a closer look from anyone who's tired of the usual southern hemisphere rotation.

Why Uruguay, Why Now

The UK wine import market has been consolidating around safe bets for a few years. Post-Brexit admin costs and the general squeeze on disposable income have made importers cautious. New regions need a champion with credentials, and Barnes has both the MW after her name and the track record in South American wine specifically. A curated "Top 10" is a smart move because it gives buyers a shortcut. Instead of wading through an unfamiliar producer landscape, you get a starting point.

The tasting was aimed at trade and press rather than general public, which tells you something about the strategy. This is ground-up work: get the sommeliers and buyers interested first, then the wines start appearing on lists, then curious drinkers order them. It's slow, but it's how regions actually break through in the UK market.

What Makes Uruguayan Tannat Different

Tannat originated in south-west France, where it's the backbone of Madiran. The wines from there are notoriously tannic and need time, which isn't always a selling point. But Uruguay has been growing Tannat since the late 19th century (brought over by Basque immigrants, which is a detail I love), and the Atlantic-influenced climate around Montevideo and Canelones produces something genuinely different. Softer tannins, more red fruit, better balance. Some producers are also blending it with Merlot or Cab Franc to round it out further.

Garzon has probably done the most to put Uruguayan wine on the international map. Their single-vineyard Tannat, particularly the Balasto, gets serious attention from critics. But Barnes' list presumably casts wider than one estate, and that's the interesting part.

What This Means if You Drink Wine in the UK

Right now, Uruguayan wine is genuinely hard to find on the high street. Majestic stocks a token bottle or two. Independents like Newcomer Wines in Stoke Newington and Hedonism in Mayfair carry small selections. If Barnes' push works, that should change over the next year or two, but you might need to be a bit proactive in the short term.

A few things worth knowing before you buy:

• Tannat at the cheaper end (under £15) can be rough. It's worth spending a bit more, £18 to £25, for something from a producer who knows what they're doing with the grape.
• The whites and rosés from Uruguay are underrated and much easier to find than the reds deserve to be. Look for Albariño, which thrives in the coastal humidity near Montevideo.
• Vintage matters here more than in Argentina. The 2021 and 2022 vintages have had good notices; the 2020 less so due to excess rain.

The Bigger Picture for UK Wine Drinkers

There's a pattern worth noticing. Every year or so, a credible voice in the wine trade decides a neglected region deserves a proper introduction to the UK market. Sometimes it sticks (Georgia's orange wines went from curiosity to restaurant staple in about three years). Sometimes it doesn't (English Grüner Veltliner is not really happening, is it).

Uruguay has things going for it that Georgia didn't when it first arrived: recognisable grape varieties, a climate story that makes sense to British drinkers who've been hearing about Atlantic influence in their own English wine, and price points that sit comfortably between "cheap South American everyday" and "expensive fine wine". The gap Barnes is targeting is real.

Whether the UK trade bites is another question. Importers are still cautious, margins are tight, and convincing a restaurant buyer to take a punt on an unfamiliar producer from an unfamiliar country is harder than it sounds. Barnes' MW status helps. The Top 10 format helps. But this is a multi-year project, not a single tasting.

How to Get Ahead of the Curve

If Uruguay interests you, the best way to actually learn about it isn't reading more articles like this one. It's tasting the wines with someone who can explain the context. Barnes herself does events and tastings, and her South America Wine Guide is the reference book if you want to go deep. But closer to home, independent wine bars and bottle shops in most UK cities run occasional themed tastings on South American wine, and Uruguay often features.

Sommly lists those kinds of events across the UK, and South American-focused tastings do come up more than you'd think, run by importers who already have Uruguayan bottles in their portfolio and want to move them. Worth checking before the trade tasting fallout starts shifting the selection at your local independent.

The wines are there. The argument for them is getting stronger. And Tannat, handled well, is genuinely one of the more interesting red grapes you can drink for under £25. I'm not certain Barnes' push will work on the timescale she's hoping for, but I'd rather be wrong about that than miss it.